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Claude
Kirchner, Super Circus,
The Scrub Club and more...

Following
his stint as the ringmaster host and announcer of ABC TV's Super
Circus
on December 18, 1955, Claude Kirchner moved from WBKB (WLS) 7 in Chicago
to WOR 9 in New York City to begin a stint as the ringmaster host
and puppeteer of one of the areas most popular cartoon shows.

Terrytoons
Circus debuted on WOR Monday evening, October 22, 1956. Set against
the backdrop of a traveling circus, Claude Kirchner would engage his
viewers in stories, informational segments, interviews with guest
performers and personalities and try to suppress the wisecracks of
his smartaleck clown puppet "Clownie" between reruns of the Paul Terry
"Terrytoons" movie Cartoons.

Terrytoons
Circus remained on the air until Friday, April 27, 1962.

Kirchner
went on to host another cartoon show set against the backdrop of a
circus, "Merrytoons Circus" became the first NYC based kid's show
to air reruns of the Columbia Pictures/Charlie Mintz "Krazy Kat",
"Scrappy" and "Lil' Abner" movie Cartoons. "MerryToones Circus" also
screened the Paramount/Famous "Talkertoons" and was
seen weekday evenings on Channel 9 from Monday April 30, 1962 to Friday,
September 20, 1963.

For a
time, Kirchner hosted another cartoon show on Channel 9, this time
set against the backdrop of a neighborhood clubhouse. The Scrub
Club opened on WOR Ch. 9 on Wednesday afternoon, May 8, 1957.

Unlike
Terrytoons Circus and Merrytoons Circus, Kirchner hosted
this series as a clubhouse leader working with a different set of
hand puppets, built by a dollmaker known as Caroline.

Mr. Kirchner
once again entertained his clubhouse members (and home viewers) by
trying to suppress the antics of his puppets "Scrubby The Pig" and
"Dr. Owl" between reruns of old movie cartoons.

The
Scrub Club remained on the air until Friday afternoon, September
13, 1957.

Kirchner
then went on to host a Saturday and Sunday morning movie show for
kids - Super Adventure Theater opened for business on
WOR Sunday morning, September 20, 1959.

Super
Adventure Theater aired reruns of 1950's sci-fi films like "Godzilla",
"The Incredible Shrinking Man" and film comedies like Laurel & Hardy's
"Pardon Us", "Pack Up Your Troubles", "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein"
and "The Three Stooges in Have Rocket Will Travel".

Kirchner
and "Clownie" continued to entertain a their viewers at Super
Adventure Theater until Channel 9 shutttered the Theater
in 1967.

This
series featured performances from popular circus acts from around
the world and comedy skits from Marx Magic Midway's resident
clowns: "Mr. Hocus Pocus" (played by WNTA Ch. 13 Newark, NJ's "Bonomo
The Magic Clown" Doug Anderson), "Boom Boom, The Tramp Clown"
(played by former circus clown Bill Bailey) and "Coo Coo, The Crazy
Clown" (Paul Dooley, who was working then under the name of Phil
Kiley).

The show
also featured a game segment where members of the studio audience
would play to win a treasure chest of Marx Toy Prizes.

Unfortunately,
Marx Magic Midway was plagued by interference from producers.
Marx Toys dropped it's sponsorship of the show and NBC closed the
Marx Magic Midway on Saturday, March 6, 1963.

Kirchner
returned to WOR 9 to host a weekday morning version of The Scrub
Club, reopening
the doors on Monday, August 26, 1968.

This
time however, the station bosses at WOR would not pay Caroline to
build new puppets for the show. Undaunted, Claude Kirchner worked
with two sock puppets - "Super Flop," a sad faced loser and "Super
Flo," a mean spirited witch, who, like "Clownie," took great
delight in putting down Mr. Kirchner's height with wisecrack putdowns
like, "Skinny Bones," "String Bean" and the somewhat controversial
"High Pockets."

The
1968 weekday morning version of TV 9's Scrub Club was the first
NYC kid show to air the Hanna-Barbera/RKO General TV/ Jomar's Abbott
& Costello cartoons along with "Spunky & Tadpole" animated films.

The
Scrub Club would remain open for business until Channel 9 locked
the Clubhouse doors for good on Friday, December 13, 1968.

Claude
Kirchner hosted one more kids show on WOR from Monday morning, February
3, 1969 to Friday, January 30, 1970, serving as the ringmaster, announcer
and co-host for Channel 9's Bozo Show.

King
Kong and Claude Kirchner
New York, 1967

"I
don't know if TV screenings of KING KONG had become a bit rare in
New York by the late '60s, early '70s - at least up until the time
that Channel 9 (the former WOR-TV) began their odd, but popular, tradition
of showing KONG on Thanksgiving Day.

"The
film did pop up in some unusual places. In 1967, many young New Yorkers
first saw KING KONG, on WOR-TV's Saturday morning SUPER ADVENTURE
THEATRE, hosted by a pop culture icon of more recent vintage - Claude
Kirchner.

"On
this Saturday and sometimes Sunday morning movie show Kirchner, still
fitting into his center-ring garb, was accompanied by his puppet sidekick,
Clowny, who appeared within a small, big-top decorated, box-like 'puppet-theatre.'

"Seeing
that middle-aged man standing next to a small podium talking to a
hand-puppet was an odd introduction to the legendary movie - ultimately,
just one more tale of -
King Kong and the City!"

- Jim
Burns (James H. Burns)

"What
a great site! I have tears in my eyes as I see my dad's name mentioned
here! (Claude Kirchner)

"Dad passed away in March of 1993 from lymphoma. A brief blurb
in the TV section of the NY Post mentioned his illness just before
he died. I saved every single letter (over 500) and have them in albums.

"I
still can't get over the response and emotions shared concerning those
who watched "Terrytoon Circus" every night. I guess it was a ritual,
but some kids were watching to escape unbelievable abuses and found
comfort from the show... If anyone reading this was one of the corespondents,
thank you sooooo much! What memories we all have from those good old
TV days!

"Here's
another couple of shows dad had that some of you might recall: Marx
Magic Midway (mid 60's on channel 4, I think) Did you know that
he was the "voice-over" voice for all those Marx commercials for a
long time?

"We
had a closet full of Marx toys, but for some reason, my brother &
I were not allowed to touch them! I guess they were to give away.
My 5th grade class (public school in Conn) went on a field trip to
this show - it was a great experience for all!)

"The
other show was Super Adventure Theater - I think it played
old movies - science fiction, I believe.

"I
have tons of stuff of dad's including his original boots & ringmaster
costume. (He wore it late in life for a show called Remember When....
hosted by a reporter named John Johnson. (I videotaped it, but our
son accidentally recorded over it!) Dad and Mary Hartline both still
fit in their costumes from the 40's!

"I also have many of the Super Circus shows with all those
live commercials. Kellogg's was their main sponsor; by the way, Mike
Wallace was the emcee on that show and it aired from 1947-55 live
from some "hall" in Chicago.

"Oh
yeah, I also have Clownie!!!!"

- Lynn

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